Dr. Marc Faber

Dr. Marc Faber: Editor & Publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report –Dr. Faber Famous for his contrarian approach to investing, Marc Faber does not run with the bulls or bait the bears but steers his own course through the maelstrom of international finance markets. In 1987 he warned his clients to cash out before Black Monday in Wall Street; he made them handsome profits by forecasting the burst in the Japanese Bubble in 1990; he correctly predicted the collapse in US gaming stocks in 1993; and he foresaw the AsiaPacific financial crisis of 1997/98 and the resulting global volatility. Dr. Faber was born in Zurich and schooled in Geneva, Switzerland, he studied Economics at the University of Zurich and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics magna cum laude. Marc currently resides in Thailand and works in Hong Kong.

THE GLOOM, BOOM & DOOM REPORT – The GBD Report is an in depth economic and financial publication, which highlights unusual investment opportunities around the world. The guiding philosophy is that, as Horace already observed, “many shall be restored that are now fallen and many shall fall that are now in honor.” The Gloom Boom & Doom report aims, based on economic, social and historical trends, to warn investors when investment themes have become widely accepted and are, therefore, highly priced and risky, while it continuously searches for opportunities in unloved and depressed markets.

Subscribers to the GBD report are usually institutional investors, corporations or high net worth individuals, who are in a position to invest internationally and in all asset classes including bonds, equities, commodities and real estate, and have the necessary account facilities in place to do so.
The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report is paper based and not available in electronic or email format.

WHAT IS THE MONTHLY MARKET COMMENTARY? – Monthly Market Commentaries (MMC) are short commentaries, which largely summarize the views expressed in The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report and are designed for sophisticated individual investors wishing to capitalize on short to medium term asset market moves.

The Monthly Market Commentary is an Internet based subscription (delivery and payment). The reports are posted on the gloomboomdoom.com website (subscribers only section) and emailed to all subscribers in PDF format around the 1st of each month.

Between 1970 and 1978, Dr Faber worked for White Weld & Company Limited in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong. Since 1973, he has lived in Hong Kong. From 1978 to February 1990, he was the Managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert (HK) Ltd. In June 1990, he set up his own business, MARC FABER LIMITED which acts as an investment advisor and fund manager.

Dr Faber publishes a widely read monthly investment newsletter “The Gloom Boom & Doom Report” report which highlights unusual investment opportunities, and is the author of several books including “ TOMORROW’S GOLD – Asia’s Age of Discovery” which was first published in 2002 and highlights future investment opportunities around the world. “ TOMORROW’S GOLD ” was for several weeks on Amazon’s best seller list and is being translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and German. Dr. Faber is also a regular contributor to several leading financial publications around the world.

A book on Dr Faber, “RIDING THE MILLENNIAL STORM”, by Nuri Vittachi, was published in 1998.

A regular speaker at various investment seminars, Dr Faber is well known for his “contrarian” investment approach. He is also associated with a variety of funds and is a member of the Board of Directors of numerous companies.

DR. DOOM – Marc Faber is a contrarian. To be a good contrarian, you need to know what you are contrary about. It helps to be a worldclass economist-historian, to have been a trader and Managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert when the firm was the junk bond king of Wall Street, to have lived in Hong Kong for a quarter of a century, and to have a contact book crammed with the home numbers of many of the movers and shakers in the financial world.Famous for his contrarian approach to investing, Marc Faber does not run with the bulls or bait the bears but steers his own course through the maelstrom of international finance markets. In 1987 he warned his clients to cash out before Black Monday in Wall Street; he made them handsome profits by forecasting the burst in the Japanese Bubble in 1990; he correctly predicted the collapse in US gaming stocks in 1993; and he foresaw the AsiaPacific financial crisis of 1997/98 and the resulting global volatility.

Nury Vittachi writes in “Riding the Millennial Storm”: Faber has style. A ski racer in his youth, he remains a flamboyant character. He plays to the press, who call him Dr Doom; his monthy newsletter, always an excellent read, is called ‘The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report’. He wears a ponytail, in defiance of the expectation (in Asia, especially) that investment managers should look conventional. His book, The Great Money Illusion, written in a hurry after the 1987 crash, was dedicated “to many beautiful and kind women whose names are better kept confidential”.

His office is eclectic. Nineteenthcentury oil paintings of Hong Kong and Macau, mingle with Korean paintings, an amazing collection of Mao memorabilia (including one white alabaster statue with a red scarf tied round its neck), an ancient horned gramophone with old Chinese records, soft flufly yellow toys and a china polar bear, bottles of XO brandy and cases of Grolsch beer. He has a superb library of first editions of works on economics and stockmarket cycles in a variety of European languages, being a multilingual Swiss and a collection of a quarter of a million Mao badges. What he says is usually impeccably well argued, but it is the delivery which makes him so sought after as a speaker: he is a master of rhetoric, and of vivid everyday examples, and the very dry sense of humour and the heavy Swiss accent provide an irresistible mix. (He describes his own writing as ‘SwissGerman pidgin English, but is actually one of the most articulate and grammatical people I know.) It is amazing how much vitriol the mention of Faber’s name can generate mainly from traders with a limited sense of historical perspective. He is well aware of this reaction. Back in 1987, he wrote: ‘No one likes a party spoiler, and as long as the stockmarket orgy goes on the pessimists are shunned almost as badly as AIDS carriers.’ The more intelligent professionals around town give him considerably more respect even when they don’t understand the detail of his operations. Some assume that he says one thing and invests differently. Other people assume he is a simplistic and publicityseeking contrarian. A large number think of him as ‘Dr Doom’, the congenital pessimist. He plays up this image, or is at least amused by it and lets it run.

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS – Investing has a lot to do with common sense and personal observations. The man on the street frequently knows far more about the state of the economy than politicians, university professors and financial analysts who seldom travel, or if they do so, only from one first class hotel to another first class hotel and from one golf course to another. The pulse and vibrancy of an economy is, however, nowhere more visible than in a country’s entertainment venues such as bars, restaurants, nightclubs and shopping centres.